Consider how good the timing is for the John Edwards endorsement. Not
just for Obama, which is obvious (stealing Hillary's media day,
appearing to lock it up, etc.), but for Edwards. Had he endorsed
before North Carolina, which many thought he would, he might have been
seen as one small factor in a state Obama was already going to win,
but then Obama would still have lost in West Virginia and the media
would be asking if Edwards' blue collar influence was a myth outside
of his own state. By declaring now, the day after Hillary's fluke
blowout in a state that was almost designed to vote against Obama in
record numbers, and by declaring a week before Kentucky (a state which
has been coupled with West Virginia by the media, but that is almost
guaranteed to vote for him in higher numbers because of its colleges,
larger cities, and slightly friendlier demographics), Edwards has set
himself up to be remembered as Mr. Blue Collar.
It doesn't matter if Obama still loses the white vote in Kentucky, it
won't be nearly as bad as it was in West Virginia, and Edwards can now take
credit for that bump. Every time next week's exit polls are discussed,
the increase in the white vote will be linked, at least in part, to Edwards'
endorsement. It'll be known as the Edwards Effect, whether it was
really his doing or just a glitch in the calendar. And since Kentucky
will be the last Appalachian state to vote, there won't be anything
down the road to suggest otherwise. Waiting until now was a brilliant
move by John Edwards. I don't think it nets him the vice-presidency,
but it keeps him from becoming a political afterthought. It carves a
Man of the People out of a man who might have been remembered as a rich lawyer with a penchant for expensive haircuts. Brilliant.